Altruism and the Care of Elderly Parents: Evidence from Japanese Families

This paper analyzes what adult children would do for their parents were they frail and in need of long-term care. Focusing on the special case of parents' illness, the paper then investigates altruism in Japanese children. Descriptive statistics show that about 30% of adult children living separately from their parents provide long-term in-home care, which suggests that a significant number of Japanese children supply care. However, detailed examination reveals that this parental care is not motivated entirely by altruism. We show that children provide parental care when their parents are wealthy enough to meet the costs of nursing.

On Effects of the Hyogo Earthquake on Household Consumption : A Note

Consumption Insurance, Japanese Households, Earthquake Shocks

A Test of the Full Insurance Hypothesis: The Case of Japan

Exploiting the panel data structure of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey, compiled from 1989 to 1997 by the Japanese Bureau of Statistics, this paper explores how effectively idiosyncratic shocks are shared among consumers in Japan. Tests are conducted for the total consumption, together with each category of consumption expenditures. In addition, the empirical analysis of the paper accounts for the disaster shock caused by the Hyogo Earthquake that took place in January 1995. While the overall empirical results indicate that the full insurance hypothesis is strongly rejected, they suggest that idiosyncratic shocks are insured at least partially. With respect to the effect of the earthquake shock, the residents in the earthquake area indeed bore more shocks than those in other regions. The paper also points out that the extent of risk-sharing among households in Japan is fairly similar to that in the US.

Development of HVJ-Liposome Mediated Gene Therapy Using HSV-Thymidine Kinase Gene for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

The suicide gene therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has given some promise, but the toxicity of adenovirusmediated gene delivery using the cytomegalovirus promoter (CMV) region linked to herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene (HSV-TK) in combination with ganciclovir (GCV) therapy was reported. In this study, to improve the technical issue of conventional gene therapy, we examined the usefulness of hemagglutinating virus of Japan (HVJ)-anionic-liposomemediated CMV-TK/GCV as an introductory target gene and development the selective application of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) enhancer/promoter or heat shock protein (HSP) promoter for gene therapy. By the luciferase reporter gene assay, both HVJ-liposome transfection and the transcriptional activation of AFP enhancer/promoter or that of the HSP promoter by heat treatment were found to be quite effective in vivo and in vivo/in vitro models respectively. The toxicity of HVJ-anionic liposome-mediated gene therapy was smaller than that of adenovirus-driven approach as judged by histopathological examination of experimental animals\u27 liver and GPT blood test. Thus, the HVJ-liposome-mediated AFP-TK/GCV or HSPTK/ GCV technique may be a potent and useful strategy of the gene therapy of HCC

One-Year Period Prevalence of Oral Aphthous Ulcers and Oral Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Behçet's Disease

The aim of this study was to investigate the 1-year period prevalence of oral aphthous ulcers (OAUs) and their association with oral health-related quality of life (OHQOL) in patients with Behçet's disease (BD) and in the general population. In this cross-sectional study, 675 patients with Behçet's disease (BD group) and 1,097 males and females in the Japanese general population (control group) completed both questionnaires on their OAU status during the prior year and the General Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI). In the BD group, 84% of patients reported experiencing an OAU during the previous year, and the mean number of OAUs/year was 13. In the control group, 31% of individuals experienced an OAU during the previous year, and the mean number of OAUs/year was one. Multivariate analysis indicated that both BD patients (OR, 6.2; 95% CI, 4.8-8.0) and controls (OR, 2.6; 95% CI, 2.0-3.5) who had OAUs at least twice per year were more likely to have GOHAI scores below the norm than were controls who had fewer than two OAUs per year. The association between HLA-B * 51 and OAUs remains unknown. The presence of OAUs has a negative effect on the OHQOL of patients with BD